Gallegly Appointed to Immigration Panel

Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley) has been appointed to a House immigration subcommittee that holds the key to whether his controversial package of immigration measures will have a chance to move in the new Congress.

Now, said the four-term lawmaker, he will at least have some clout in the House of Representatives to push for the package’s first congressional hearing.

Gallegly confirmed Monday that he was appointed last week to the House Judiciary subcommittee on international law, immigration and refugees. His appointment to the full Judiciary Committee--the only non-lawyer named to the panel in recent memory--was announced last month. The subcommittee has 10 members, six Democrats and four Republicans.

Gallegly acknowledged in a telephone interview from his Ventura County office that his appointment was vital to the legislation’s future.

“You’re in a position where you have access to the powers that be on the committee that you otherwise wouldn’t have,” he said. “The bottom line is that it definitely will be to our advantage.”

Gallegly’s appointment to the subcommittee impressed one Ventura County Latino activist--but also triggered apprehension.

“It tells me one thing, the guy’s got some pull in (Washington) D.C.,” said Oxnard attorney Oscar Gonzalez, a spokesman for Ventura County’s Mexican-American Bar Assn.

Gonzalez was a leading supporter of Anita Perez Ferguson of Oxnard, the Democrat who was defeated by Gallegly in November’s general election race for the House seat that represents Ventura County.

Gonzalez and other critics argued that Gallegly used the immigration package as a major campaign tool to exploit racial fears and economic tensions.

For his part, Gallegly consistently declared that he is “a strong advocate of legal immigration,” and that it was illegal immigration toward which he was directing his congressional efforts.

Such statements do not placate Gonzalez.

“Looking at his record over the last year, not only am I apprehensive, but I don’t sleep well at night,” Gonzalez said of the subcommittee appointment.

In the last session of Congress, the 48-year-old lawmaker was a leader on the issue of illegal immigration.

Of major controversy was a Gallegly-sponsored constitutional amendment that would deny automatic citizenship to the children of illegal immigrants who are born in the United States.

Another measure introduced at the height of the general election race would have cracked down on illegal immigrants who live in public housing.

Supporting much of this effort was Rep. Anthony C. Beilenson (D-Los Angeles), who also aspired to a more active role in stemming illegal immigration and who became the only Democrat to co-sponsor Gallegly’s constitutional amendment.

In the new Congress, Beilenson, who was handily reelected after a heated campaign, “expects to introduce his own immigration legislation,” said spokeswoman Kay Van Horn.

Currently, Gallegly is working with legislative counsel to design his new immigration package. He said he expected to unveil it by early February.

“It’s going through fine-tuning,” he said, adding that he did not know if the constitutional amendment would be reshaped or, indeed, reintroduced.

“The issue,” he said, “is how do we eliminate the incentive of people coming to this country to bear a child and gain the advantages of citizenship for the child and to the family of that child and all of the economic benefits?”